Page 10 of Hate It with You

“Maybe, my ass,” Leo says once he’s reached the front counter. “It’s Beth’s bookstore, isn’t it?”

I side-eye my brother before checking in one of my regulars who has now joined us at the front desk. “Have a good workout,” I say.

Typically, Tiffany or Jake handles the front desk, but neither could open today. Something about finals, but I’m almost positive they both hit up a party last night. I’m just happy I was able to convince Jake to come in later so I can make it to Beth’s store opening.

Leo’s face lights up at my lack of a response as he lightly hits me on the shoulder. “I can’t believe you got her to agree to rent the place from you. That’s great, man,” he says.

“Well…” I pause, trying to think through how I’m going to tell him.

Leo’s smile drops from his face, his tone taking on a serious note. “What did you do?”

“I gave her a fantastic deal on the place. I’m actually losing money from her renting it out. Free Wi-Fi, the apartment upstairs included for basically nothing, but…” I pause.

“But what? Fucking spit it out.” A smile teases my lips at Leo’s lack of patience. It’s moments like these that he reminds me of Roman.

“She doesn’t know that I’m the landlord.”

I expect Leo to start on some lecture, but instead, he stands there staring at me, unmoving, unblinking. By the way, his left eye is twitching, I’d say he’s trying to burn a hole straight through my head with his eyesight alone. Waiting, I pull my water bottle to my lips to take another drink.

As fast as the cool water hits my lips, it’s sloshing out of the bottle when Leo lands a sharp smack to the back of my skull. It’s not hard enough to hurt, but just hard enough to get my attention.

“What the fuck?” I turn to Leo and ask, wiping water from my chin.

“What the fuck is wrong with you? You tricked her? There’s no way she’s going to be okay with this. Not after how much you annoyed her last summer. This is an unbelievable violation of her autonomy and⁠—”

I cut him off before he could continue, holding a hand up. “Let me stop you right there. Before Theo gave her the keys, he tried to tell her, but she refused to listen. Said she didn’t want to mess up the offer I gave her.”

“Theo is in on this too? That fucker.” He says the last part under his breath. “Sienna is going to kill both of you.”

“Probably,” I sigh. “But I’m going to tell her tonight, after her grand opening. Besides, I didn’t annoy her that much.”

Leo holds out his hands, touching one pointer finger to the other, and I settle in for the list he’s about to rattle off.

“For starters, you used a douchey pickup line. She hates your car because it’s unnecessarily loud⁠—”

“My car is sexy and you know it,” I snap, unable to help myself.

Leo ignores me as he continues, “Alex, you took a photo of her in her bikini and made it your background photo on your phone.”

I wave off his comment as I shuffle some papers on the front desk, busying myself. “She practically dared me to. Besides, I deleted it, didn’t I? There’s just something about her, Leo. I haven’t been able to get her off my mind since I met her.”

Leo’s eyes widen as they fill with pity, and his tone softens. “Listen, we all know you can get a little… obsessive. Don’t let that extend to Beth. I don’t think she’s interested, and I know she won’t be happy about this.” He places his hand on my shoulder as he shrugs. “Sorry.”

I shrug him off. “You don’t know what you’re talking about.”

“Really? Who’s talked to her more since this summer? Me, or you?”

“Oh, fuck off.” My words come out clipped given the reminder of how the two of them have stayed in touch. They connected this last summer, eventually exchanging numbers, but I can’t help the twisting in my gut that happens when I think about Beth’s inclination to be so kind to my brothers yet act so disgusted toward me.

I’ve never been so attracted to a woman who appears to hate me so much. It’s been enlightening, to say the least. Though the endless buzzing throughout my body intensifies when I remember I have to tell her the truth today.

“You’re an asshole,” Leo says.

“Never said I wasn’t.” I slap Leo on the shoulder, a little harder than I intend at the remembrance of the fact that the two of them are friends.

“Why do you do that?” Leo asks.

“Do what?”